Games with Chelsea tend to be quite memorable and hyped up. Little, however, was made of the most recent encounter between the two clubs. Admittedly it was the two sides' reserve teams that met yet, given that they play in different sections of the league, it was an unusual encounter nevertheless.

It may still turn out to be a memorable one, however, as the friendly featured the first reserve team appearance of Lauri Della Valle. Click to continue reading...

You have to check out Goal Seattle's report of the game.

Apparently after a 2-1 Sounders win over Montreal in the first leg of the first round of the USL playoffs, the Impact coach went into the stands at Starfire and was getting into it with the fans.

The match was testy too, with a bunch of cards and chippiness. Click to continue reading...

Former Arsenal striker Thierry Henry has today admitted he may consider leaving Barcelona if he does not get more first-team action.

The French international has made just over 50 appearances for the La Liga giants since joining last summer, however he has admitted he may consider leaving in January. Click to continue reading...

Despite the addition of new "director of programming" Fabio Capello, The Special One tries to carry on, business as usual. With his staff being rotated, though, a showdown between Mourinho and Capello was always on the cards.

Who won? Stay tuned to find out. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool striker Robbie Keane insists he is too experienced to become anxious about his Anfield goal drought.

The Republic of Ireland international joined the Reds in July in a £20million move from Tottenham, but he has yet to find the back of the net for his new employers.

Keane has now gone seven games without breaking his Liverpool duck, and he also scored just once in his final eight games for Spurs. Click to continue reading...

Time really flies, huh? It feels like only yesterday when Lyon had once again shot themselves in the foot against Manchester United. And remember those back to back 3-0 defeats, one to Barcelona (almost understandable) and the other to Rangers (practically inconceivable)? I guess you could say that last year's Champions League campaign has more bad memories than good ones.

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Marcello Lippi's first two competitive games at the helm of the Azzurri left no surprises as Italy took victories in both of their World Cup 2010 qualification matches. In the first match of Italy's qualification campaign, a shocking draw seemed to be on the cards until Antonio di Natale's strike found . Click to continue reading...

D.C. United Wins the U.S. Open Cup

Well, all along I said the U.S. Open Cup was an important trophy for United to win. Okay, except for that time when I said that I wanted them to start reserves so we could keep a focus on the season. Or the other time when I called it the least important trophy we could win this year.

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I know. The title confuses me too but it does make sense in a way.

I read today that Le Boss has hinted at a signing if not two. I'm not taking anything that Le Boss says at face value anymore!

The amount of times that he had said something and the complete opposite has happened escapes me. Click to continue reading...

There's a story going around that Henry had a medical yesterday with a move to Manchester United on the cards. The story is bollocks, but the subsequent reaction to the story raised a couple of interesting points. One, would Henry ever play for Manchester United? I think that if Barcelona didn't want him, if he didn't want [. Click to continue reading...

The fallout from the Fulham game has not been pretty. Condemnation of the performance and the wafer thin squad has been widespread, and rightly so.

I've already said plenty about what we need to do about it so it is somewhat depressing to hear the manager say we're not close to signing anyone.

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FFA have invested heavily in a referee improvement program this year. And so far it is likely that they will be disappointed. In this game 10 cards were handed out, including 2 yellow and a red for one incident. 3 yellows for CCM for 23 fouls and 6 yellows for Sydney for 14 fouls - not much between those that got cards and those that didn't. Click to continue reading...

It's Friday and, as we've said before, Friday is hell for football blogs. This Friday is no exception as the weekend sees another bumper weekend of fixtures, with full cards across all three top divisions in Scotland, so without further ado lets get the ball rolling. As usual there's a few cracking fixtures coming up. Click to continue reading...

It's Friday and, as we've said before, Friday is hell for football blogs. This weekend sees another bumper weekend of fixtures, with full cards across all three top divisions in Scotland. As usual there's a few cracking fixtures coming up. For example, in the SPL, we've got a rematch of one of [.. Click to continue reading...

Reuters is getting pretty excited about a men's Olympic semifinal between Brazil and Argentina.

Rightfully so. Should be exciting and the winner should win the final fairly easily -- don't make me regret that Nigeria.

Then again, like Pies, I'm more excited for a cards, Jenga, Connect Four showdown between Anderson (Brazil) and Tevez (Argentina). Click to continue reading...

Okay, if all I want for the remainder of this season are gritted out wins, then I'll take this one. To give Chicago the respect they deserve - the Fire had done quite a bit and could have legitimately walked out with a draw. That said, United was a post away from a multiple goal win. Ultimately, this kind of win is satisfying.

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I'm as excited as the next man about the start of the new season, but I've still got this niggling feeling about our back four.

If Woody, King, Hutton and Bale stay fit then clean sheets look like a promising prospect particulaly now we've got a new keeper between the sticks. One of these gets injured though and we could easily start to leak goals, which was a big problem last term. Click to continue reading...

The summer is always full of transfer rumours but just how much attention should we pay to paper talk and gossip. Ronaldo to Real, Barry to Liverpool, Robinho to Chelsea and Arshavin and Adebayor to quite their clubs are all deals that have been touted around the media but how many have gone through. Click to continue reading...

July is almost over, but the Wizards don't have another game until August. In the month of July, the Wizards went 1-0-3 in league. Add in a win and a draw in the US Open Cup and the Wizards were undefeated with a 2-0-4 record in the month of July. Unlike June, there are plenty of people with stats and play this month that could be considered for the Player of the Month award. Click to continue reading...

According to various sources Manchester United are preparing a £15m move for Thierry Henry. My reaction to this story? What a load of bollocks! Henry has always said that he would never play for another English club and I believe him.

But just imagine IF the move was actually on the cards and Titi DID sign for Manchester United, how would you feel about it? Click to continue reading...

It rained goals and cards last weekend in the TPL with eight yellow and two red at Sinthana's clash with Chonburi. Not much kwam pen thai lah!

TOT v Bangkok Bank 2-1
Sinthana v Chonburi 0-0
Customs v Port 3-2
BEC Tero v Bangkok University 3-0
Nakorn Pathom v Army 1-0
Bang Phra v KTB 1-0
Osotspa v TTM 1-0
PEA v Samut Songkram 1-0

1. Click to continue reading...

With a move for Gareth Barry appearing to be dead in the water, the media is chock-a-block with other potential ways for Rafa Benitez to spend some cash, this source suggests a move for a great La Liga attacker is on the cards! Don't forget to check out Online Football Manager! Liverpool ... Click to continue reading...

After weeks of anticipation, Serie A's clubs finally know who they will be facing on the opening day – the weekend of August 31. For the entire schedule see Serie A TIM Championship Several great first day matches are in the cards including, Fiorentina vs. Juventus, Roma vs. Napoli, and Milan vs. Click to continue reading...

With boss Juande Ramos resigned to the fact that Robbie Keane is heading to Liverpool, Tottenham have started the race for Valencia striker David Villa. Following Tottenham's interest, Real Madrid promptly declared themselves interested as well.

David Villa showed his class in Euro 2008 as he led the tournament in scoring. Click to continue reading...

In her conference call about her injury, Abby Wambach mentioned receiving cards and emails of support from players around the world on different teams. Not everyone was feeling sad on her behalf, though. Here's an email I received:

Just wanted to comment on your article on Abby Wambach.
As a football journalist, I usually have a lot of sympathy for players when they get injured, especially in the course of a game. Click to continue reading...

Le Boss intends to bolster the midfield for the forth coming season. With Gilberto and Flamini departing over the summer, the centre of midfield is an area that needs strengthening.

"We will need one more body in there," said Wenger when asked about his midfield. "At the moment we do not have Alex Song who is going to the Olympic games, Abou Diaby was not here tonight and nor was Fabregas. Click to continue reading...

I'm in a pissy mood. Last night, I was sent off in my house league game by an incompetent idiot of a referee. I want to vent here but I obviously don't play in MLS.

- Player on opposite team takes throw, his foot comes about 30 cm off the ground.
- Me: "Foul throw!" (Everyone stops play because it was so obvious) Ref doesn't stop play, and our defender kicks the ball back out.

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It can always be difficult in the Preseason to pick players to fill your team, especially from the newly promoted clubs. Many of them will be transferring in new players who have experience playing Premier League football, and this can mean players who played large amounts of gametime in the previous season find themselves out in the cold. Click to continue reading...

No, dear reader, this isn't softcore porn hour at GFC HQ. This is what results from having a weak referee mixed with a group of over-enthusiastic Over-35's on a football pitch. And let me tell ya, with no offense to the wife, I haven't screamed like that in a long time.

This is the impact point at which knee/shin met my torso. Click to continue reading...

Moon Soon Ho left it late before securing all three points for Super Reds at Gombak United to put them back on top of the SLeague albeit having played two games more than nearest rivals SAF.

In the other game last night Home came from behind to beat Geylang 2-1 but remain six points behind leaders Super Reds with just a game in hand. Click to continue reading...

Robbie Keane has shocked Tottenham supporters as he today demanded a move to Liverpool. With Peter Crouch likely leaving the club, Keane would be a welcome addition. Tottenham are in a striker crisis following this piece of news. Both Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov have now publicly declared their desire to leave while Darren Bent has been a flop at White Hart Lane. Click to continue reading...

Rafa Benitez has been linked with a move for this veteran, who has now voiced his anger at recent events, which have led to many suggesting an exit could be on the cards! Lyon's inspirational captain Juninho has threatened his directors he could leave Stade Gerland this summer after seven seasons at the club. Click to continue reading...

Emmanuel Adebayor is fast becoming the new Didier Drogba. The striker's indecision appears to be there for all to see, firstly claiming (through his agent) that he's likely to leave for Milan, then stating he's sticking around at Arsenal, and now declaring that a move could be on the cards again. Not only that, but the [. Click to continue reading...

After weeks of making Arsenal sweat over a possible move for their big striker, AC Milan has been reserved to the fact that a possible deal for striker Emmanuel Adbayor isn't in the cards. However, that hasn't kept another big club from trying to make a move. Spanish paper, Marca, is reporting that Barcelona is [. Click to continue reading...

For around the first 100 years of their existence professional footballers were treated much like workers in other industries. The employers held most of the cards and players received a rough deal. They had barely adequate pay, lacked influence and no real freedom of movement. Dickensian football club chairmen treated sportsmen like servants, simply indefensibly. Click to continue reading...